The Case of the Lost Ranger
by drgnrider09
Summary: Tanner (Tan), Cat, and Neil are training to become Pokemon Rangers at the Ranger Academy in Apin Town. One day at Ranger school, a new student shows up cold and alone with no home to go back to. Read as they team up to take on the mysterious gang of criminals that is plaguing the region of Krestos, a land that holds secrets better left alone.
1. A Typical Day

"Hey where're ya going?" I yelled to Cat. She spun her head around, from the look on her face I could tell she was definitely not in the mood to talk.

"To the girl's dorm! I have to get ready! Jeez Neil, I thought you remembered, I'm getting my styler today! I have to be ready to be ready for getting ready!" Huh? Oh that's right! I had completely forgotten about Cat's test. I had gotten my styler weeks ago, the test they gave me was too easy if you ask me; all I had to do was defeat a few lousy Haunter. Easy. Cat's test wasn't as simple, she was supposed to capture a loose Raticate in the school, at night for that matter.

"Alright!" I called to her, "I'll meet you back here at 10!" Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder, I whipped around to face Tanner. "Sonofagun!" I gasped, "You scared the shit out of me!"

"That's what I do" he grinned, "Hey did ya hear? Cat's gotta capture a Raticate! I'd hate to be her right now, those things are creepy with their pointy teeth and squinty eyes, " He shivered and a Ranger turned a corner and walked toward us in the hallway, I didn't know he was a hall monitor until it was too late.

"Now what are you two doing in the hallways? Get to class!" Without batting an eye, Tanner's expression changed from excitement to devilish.

"Hey Sean! We were _just_ talking about you!" He snickered and I stifled a chuckle.

"That's not amusing Tanner, and if you had a brain you'd get to class," Tanner raised an eyebrow.

"And if you had a brain, you'd had graduated by now," He was right. Sean was supposed to have graduated already, but was held back because of failing grades. He scoffed and walked past us to go pick on two girls that had convened at a locker to skip class.

"We should get going though, we can't miss the lesson on charging a styler, it's supposed to be important," I said, and walked to our classroom to resume another typical day at Ranger School.

I sat in the back of the class, trying my hardest to absorb all of the information being forced at me. My mind started to wander until I imagined I was a Top Ranger. People respecting me wherever I went, and always getting to do what I want. "That's the life..." thought. I didn't realize I had said this out loud until Mr. Jacobs along with the rest of the class turned to stare at me.

"Mr. Roberts! Would you be so kind as to explain what you are talking about?" Tan snickered and I gave him an icy glare.

"Well, I, ah..." I trailed off.

"Maybe you'll have more time to think when you're writing a paper on it, in detention!" Damn. Well there went my afternoon, luckily Cat was getting her styler late at night, so I didn't have to worry about that. Mr. Jacobs turned back around towards the board and Tan made little devil horns on his head.

Without even turning around, he stated out loud, "I'll be seeing you in detention as well Tanner Goodman." Well, maybe detention won't be so bad, after all, Tan's been there plenty of times, but with Mr. Jacobs, there was no telling what might happen.

Suddenly the bell rang for lunch and I immediately marched to the cafeteria to get the first dibs on food. I got in line and Cat walked in behind me in full uniform. I don't know why she wanted to change this early, her test was in 7 and a half hours, but then again, she was Cat. "So how are ya?" I said, "Anything interesting happen to you today?"

She shook her head, "No. You?"

"Me and Tan got detentions from Mr. Jacobs."

"No kidding!"

"After school I gotta report to his classroom. Oh and I'll have one of those steak things," I said to the angry-looking lunch lady. She had huge circles under her eyes and didn't like children. She stabbed a fork into a soggy looking piece of meat and put it on my plate with the fork still sticking out of it. "Well thanks!" I said cheerfully.

We both got the rest of our lunches and sat in our normal spot next to the window. I poked my steak and decided to just eat a candy bar I had brought with me. That stuff was not edible.

Tan walked up with his brown bag lunch. I didn't know where he got his lunch from, but he's the only kid I knew who didn't buy lunch. He sat down and immediately noticed Cat's outfit.

"What's the garb?" he inquired.

"It's for my test tonight, I want to be ready before it happens."

"Well the collar's a little screwed up," he reached over and adjusted the hem of her jacket. She chuckled and did a pose to show off the new and improved collar of her jacket. Tanner laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Much better," he stated.

"Anyways," I chimed in, "I just hope the rest of today goes by quicker than it is now, I'll be too tired to move if I have to sit through another class on using a styler, I fuckin' know how to use the damn thing."

"Have I ever told you that you swear too much?" Tan said.

I shrugged, "Yeah."


	2. Not A Typical Night

I arrived at detention right on time. There were three other kids in there, Tanner being one of them. The two other kids looked a year older than me, maybe 15, 16, and had piercings all over their faces. It was kind of disturbing. Mr. Jacobs was sitting at his desk with a stack of notebook paper and some pens. He stood up and handed each of us two sheets of paper.

"Today you will be writing about why you want to get out of detention. It will have to cover both of these pages, front and back, you will use only the pens on my desk, if you make a mistake then you will start over, you will have detention tomorrow, with fresh paper ready for you, if you don't finish within the next two hours, that gives you until 6:30. Have fun."

It took me a moment to figure out why I hated this place so much, well the classroom at least. At last, I realized that I had better things to do, like practice with my styler, and study. I wrote feverishly for the next two hours until my hand felt like it was about to fall off. Tan got up and turned in his papers and then left me in the room. It was dead silent except for the scribbling of pencil on paper. Mr. Jacobs stared right at us, didn't he have work to do? Apparently not. One of the kids with piercings got up and handed his sheets of paper to Mr. Jacobs, leaving two of us there to write. Then, the impossible happened, I forgot to capitalize the word My at the beginning of my second-to-last sentence. NO!

"Alright time's up! It looks like Neil and Gordon will be coming back tomorrow. To start over." What an evil man. Now tomorrow afternoon's ruined too. Just great.

Cat and Tan were waiting for me outside. "Did ya finish?" Tan asked. I shrugged. "You didn't finish?" I nodded and flipped off the door to the classroom. "Hey man that sucks." He was right, and now I had to go back tomorrow. That man was ruining my life.

"Hey let's go get some dinner," Cat suggested, "I heard that it's good today c'mon!"

_skip to right before Cat's test_

"Hey guys!" Cat whispered in the dark school hallway, "Over here!" We hurried over to her in the dark of the hallway. I wasn't used to being out passed curfew; the school was a scary place at night. She held out her arm, and on it lay a semi-new styler.

"Wow cool!" I whispered. She nodded her head.

"Yeah! And if I complete my task tonight, I get to keep it like both of you guys!" She smiled, obviously excited, she scanned the hallway. Suddenly, a pair of eyes appeared behind Tan.

"Watch out!" I said as I thrusted my arms out to pull him back away from whatever the thing was. A Raticate stepped out of the gloom.

"Well that was easy!" Cat said cheerfully, "Now all I have to do is capture it."

"Wait a second," I paused. This was too easy. Slowly I turned around to see a giant hoard of Zubats hanging from the ceiling. "Duck!" I yelled as they launched themselves at us. The Zubats must not have been at a very high level because I could barely feel a thing, but there were so many that I was pinned to the ground, scrambling to cover my head. I looked around in the midst of the chaos and saw the Raticate turn a corner with Cat not far behind. I started after her, dragging Tan with me.

The Raticate led us down many twists and turns until we reached a part of the school that ended abrubtly with a cement wall. Even a Raticate would take a few minutes to gnaw through that. At last, Cat had it cornered. "Styler ON!" she recited perfectly.

One loop.

Two loops.

Three loops.

"Success!" The styler gauntlet said and the Raticate looked at Cat with an expression of understanding. She had done it! The styler was hers! We congratulated her and started to find our way back to the main hall where we would then part ways and go to our respective dorms.

It just so happened that we passed the front door of the school on the way to the main hall and I thought I saw a shape outside of the building, low to the ground and sprawled out. With a closer look I realized that it was a girl. I pointed her out to Tan and Cat and we carefully lifted her up and carried her inside. She was cold and wet and looked pale and skinny, like she had been traveling for a while and passed out on our door.

"What should we do Neil?" Tan asked.

"We should take her to the nurse!" I said, quickly picking her up, by myself this time, and started to walk to the nurse's office. When we arrived, she was immediately taken and put on a bed and covered in a decent amount of blankets.

The nurse questioned us about what we were doing out of bed and where we found the mysterious girl from the doorstep. Afterwards, she sent us off to bed, but before she did, she warned: "Don't tell anyone about this. Not even your teachers. I don't know where this girl came from, but she isn't supposed to be here. Now off to bed with you!" Trust me when I say that we heeded her words.

When I eventually did get to bed, I was kept up by the questions about this girl running through my mind. When I did sleep, it was restless and usually ended up with my original position of laying down and thinking. And even though I missed nearly all of my sleep, I didn't feel the slightest bit tired the next morning.

**_I am a little low on time, but I will try to get this story done by Christmas._**


	3. Time for a Tour

I woke up the next morning to a splitting headache. I guess I hadn't noticed at the time, but those Zubats were using Supersonic over and over again and it really took a toll on me. When stepped out of the dorm room into the lounge room between the boys' and girls' dorms, no one was there. I looked at my watch on the gauntlet that held my styler and it was 10:30! I'd missed breakfast and two classes! I panicked. What was I going to do! My teachers would kill me if they found out I'd slept in. A door opened and Cat walked in.

"Oh hi Neil!" She said, " The nurse told the principal about the Zubats and he gave us today off." Whew! What a relief! I sighed.

"I thought I'd missed Mrs. Barton's class. That would be a nightmare." I said exasperated. She chuckled.

"Hey, you're probably hungry. Tan is waiting for us in the cafeteria and we should probably go and meet him there."

"Let's go," I said, and we were off towards the cafeteria.

When we got to the cafeteria, I was in for a surprise. There, across from Tanner, was the girl from last night. She looked prettier than she did the night before with her dark, black hair combed, and the mud from her clothes gone, in fact, she had a school uniform on just like the rest of us. She turned to us as we walked in and looked at me suspiciously, then relaxed when Tan waved to us. "Hey Neil, Cat, over here!" He really didn't have to say that; we're the only ones in the cafeteria. There were two breakfast plates waiting on either side of Tan and the girl, so we each took one of them. Cat sat down next to Tan and I took the spot on the bench next to the girl.

"Hi I'm Neil" and held out my hand for her to shake it. She took it firmly and shook it with purpose.

"Lisa." She said, "From what I hear you're quite the Ranger." I could feel my ears getting hot. "And you must be Cat? Right?"

"Yes!" Cat said as they shook hands also. "So how did you get out of the nurse's office so quickly? Usually she keeps people there for a day or two at least," she asked.

"Well, I told her that I felt fine, after I woke up of course, and that I wished to look around the building. After some persuasion, she said to wait until morning and that she would have it arranged that I would spend my first day with you guys." She gestured to all of us.

"Wait." I swallowed a bite of scrambled eggs. "_First_ day? You mean you're going to stay here? No offense, but you didn't exactly sign up for this school, and we already started the first term, do you really think you can make up all that lost time?"**  
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"I believe I can." She said, "Besides, I already know how to use a styler, it shouldnt be too hard." She seemed pretty bent on staying at the school, so I let the issue go; she didn't seem like a bad kid and I wouldn't mind having her around.

"So what do you think you want to do today Lisa?" I said while shoveling more food in my mouth.

"Well, I think the only appropriate thing to do is show me around campus is it not?" She said a matter-of-factly. We all nodded.

"So it's settled then," Cat said, "But where to first?"

Tan got a lightbulb look on his face and announced, "How about the front door?" Leave it to Tan to state the obvious, but he had a good point, and a few moments later, we were standing in front of the building.

"So the school campus goes all the way from there," I pointed to the front gate, "To there," I pointed at a 3ft high brick wall, just high enough to keep the Bidoof inside, "And it ends back behind the capture arena out back and somewhere in those woods over there," I said and followed the perimeter of the campus with my index finger.

"Wow, you've got a big school!" Lisa said, "And even a capture arena? You must love it here!"

"It's pretty great," Tan said as he opened the door to the school, "Just wait 'til ya see the inside."

As we entered, I looked back at the outside, I loved to go out there and rarely did. Maybe I would be back later today if I got the chance.

Cat took the role of lead tour guide from there and pointed out almost every bit of the school to Lisa while she took it all in enthusiastically. We went from one end of the school to the other, and when we were done with that, we went around back to the capure arena and Cat explained all the events that happened there. After a quick break for lunch, which Lisa couldn't be at because no one was supposed to know about her until tomorrow, we went to the woods for a light walk in the changing leaves.

Suddenly, a pokemon jumped out in front of us, blocking our path and intent on not letting us pass, or leave. I recognized it as a Poochyena and got my styler ready when Lisa jumped out and began a capture. She circled the pokemon with 8 loops until it finally gave up battling and became more friendly.

"Huh, that's weird," Tan said, "Usually they travel in packs." Right as he said this, two more Poochyenas and a pair of Mightyenas uncovered themselves, growling in vicious attack. Lisa took a step back. Wrong move. One Mightyhyena launched itself at her, using tackle and knocking her to the ground unconcious while the other cornered Cat and Tan. I knew I had to do something, so I began a multicapture, starting with the two Mightyenas. One was stationary so it was easy to capture. I then used the one I just captured battle the other, so I could capture it more easily. Doing this successfully, I turned to the Poochyenas, but they huddled near their parents and didn't bother to attack, so I left them alone.

"Get out of here!" I yelled to Tan and Cat. They fled the scene faster than you could say Magikarp. I then turned to Lisa and saw that she was still unconscious. So I hoisted her up and carried her to a clearing that I knew was well hidden and protected from angry pokemon. I set Lisa down and messaged Tan where we were. He said he'd be right there and not to move. Slowly, Lisa woke up and looked around and then at me.

"How did we get here?" She asked.

"I captured the Mightyenas and carried you here before anything else happened."

Her expression softened, "Thank you," she said.

"No problem," I said, then paused, "I was wondering, how'd you end up-" she cut me off.

"-at the school last night? I really don't remember, but I know that I didn't get there on my own. The last thing I remember is getting caught in a storm after-" she cut herself off. "How do I know you won't blab to the rest of the building how I got here?"

"You don't," I answered honestly, but I'm pretty sure that I could keep it a secret if she wanted me to, I'm not like a gossip or anything.

"Well I guess you'll have to earn my trust then." This angered me.

"Um excuse me miss, but I did save you from those Mightyena and I carried you here, not to mention that I also carried you to the nurse after you were left on the doorstep last night." I crossed my arms.

She suddenly looked close to tears. "I- I'm sorry, I just... I ran away from home okay! Everyone was just so horrible there; I couldn't take it anymore!"

Now it was my turn to feel sorry. I uncrossed my arms and put my hands on her shoulders. "Hey, I'm sorry about that, but you're safe here. Cat, Tanner, and I will be by your side no matter what. We're friends now, and there's no need to worry." She looked at me gratefully and I felt a little better. We both stood up and waited to be picked up. The next minute, Cat and Tan were standing at the edge of the clearing to lead us back to the school.


End file.
